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US 9,233,868 B2Granted
System and method for controlling pusher parameters to adjust the placement of glass containers on the conveyor
AssigneeEmhart Glass S.A.
InventorJonathan S. Simon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for automatically adjusting the motion and timing of pusher mechanisms in an I.S. machine to maintain desired spacing and lateral alignment of glass containers on a conveyor taking them from the I.S. machine where they are molded. The measured glass container placement and the desired glass container placement are used to vary the operation of the pusher mechanisms in a manner tending to obtain the desired placement.
Claims23
A system for correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor, comprising:
- a pusher mechanism for moving glass containers from a deadplate to the conveyor;
- a glass container placement measurement system that provides a measured glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- apparatus for comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- and
- a control system using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished;
- wherein the desired glass container placement signal includes a desired glass container longitudinal placement signal and a desired glass container lateral placement signal, and wherein the measured glass container placement signal includes a measured glass container longitudinal placement signal and a measured glass container lateral placement signal, and wherein the control system comprises:
- a first controller that uses the desired glass container longitudinal placement signal and the measured glass container longitudinal placement signal to provide modified longitudinal pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the difference between the desired glass container longitudinal placement signal and the measured glass container longitudinal placement signal to be diminished;
- and
- a second controller that uses the desired glass container lateral placement signal and the measured glass container lateral placement signal to provide modified lateral pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the difference between the desired glass container lateral placement signal and the measured glass container lateral placement signal to be diminished.
6 more elements
A system for correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor, comprising:
- a pusher mechanism for moving glass containers from a deadplate to the conveyor;
- a glass container placement measurement system that provides a measured glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- apparatus for comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- and
- a control system using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished;
- additionally comprising:
- an online constrained least squares optimizer that solves the problem:
- minimize over u,magnitude(zdesired−Pu)
- subject to:
- umin≦u≦umax
- (where z is a vector of container placement position perturbations, P is a matrix of sensitivity coefficients, and u is a vector of pusher parameter adjustments) to compute the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements.
8 more elements
A system for correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor, comprising:
- a pusher mechanism for moving glass containers from a deadplate to the conveyor;
- a glass container placement measurement system that provides a measured glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- apparatus for comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- and
- a control system using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished
- additionally comprising:
- an online constrained least squares optimizer that solves the problem:
- minimize over u,magnitude(zdesired−z(u))
- subject to:
- umin≦u≦umax
- (where z is a vector of container placement position perturbations, z(u) is the non-linear functional relationship between the pusher adjustment u and the container locations z, and u is a vector of pusher parameter adjustments) to compute the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements.
8 more elements
A method of correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor with a pusher mechanism, comprising:
- providing a measured glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- providing a desired glass container placement signal;
- comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- and
- using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished;
- and
- additionally comprising:
- computing the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements with an inverse pusher model.
5 more elements
A method of correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor with a pusher mechanism, comprising:
- providing a measure glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- providing a desired glass container placement signal;
- comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished;
- and
- additionally comprising:
- computing the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements with an online constrained least squares optimizer that solves the problem:
- minimize over u,magnitude(zdesired−Pu)
- subject to:
- umin≦u≦umax
- (where z is a vector of container placement position perturbations, P is a matrix of sensitivity coefficients, and u is a vector of pusher parameter adjustments) to compute the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements.
8 more elements
A method of correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor with a pusher mechanism, comprising:
- providing a measured glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- providing a desired glass container placement signal;
- comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished;
- and
- additionally comprising:
- computing the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements with an online constrained least squares optimizer that solves the problem:
- minimize over u,magnitude(zdesired−z(u))
- subject to:
- umin≦u≦umax
- (where z is a vector of container placement position perturbations, z(u) is the non-linear functional relationship between the pusher adjustment u and the container locations z, and u is a vector of pusher parameter adjustments) to compute the modified pusher parameters that will provide an approximation of the desired glass container placements.
8 more elements
A method of correctly placing glass containers formed by an I.S. machine onto a conveyor with a pusher mechanism, comprising:
- providing a measured glass container placement signal indicative of the actual locations of glass containers moved onto the conveyer by the pusher mechanism;
- providing a desired glass container placement signal;
- comparing the measured glass container placement signal with a desired glass container placement signal and generating a glass container placement error signal;
- using the glass container placement error signal to provide modified pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the glass container placement error signal to be diminished;
- and
- wherein the desired glass container placement signal includes a desired glass container longitudinal placement signal and a desired glass container lateral placement signal, and wherein the measured glass container placement signal includes a measured glass container longitudinal placement signal and a measured glass container lateral placement signal, and wherein the using step comprises:
- using the desired glass container longitudinal placement signal and the measured glass container longitudinal placement signal to provide modified longitudinal pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the difference between the desired glass container longitudinal placement signal and the measured glass container longitudinal placement signal to be diminished;
- and
- uses the desired glass container lateral placement signal and the measured glass container lateral placement signal to provide modified lateral pusher parameters to vary the operation of the pusher mechanism in a manner that will cause the difference between the desired glass container lateral placement signal and the measured glass container lateral placement signal to be diminished.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.